Quotes by D. Hawkins

The incredible beauty of all things shone forth in all their perfection, and where the world saw ugliness, I saw only timeless beauty. I spent years in inner silence, and the strength of the Presence grew. I had no personal life; my personal will no longer existed; I was an instrument of the Infinite Presence, and I went about and did as it willed. People felt an extraordinary peace in the aura of that Presence. Seekers sought answers from me, but as there was no such individual as David any longer, I saw what they were doing was finessing answers from their own Self, which was not different from mine. Excerpted from D. Hawkins, Power vs. Force, presented by the US American magazine In Light Times, August 2004; cited in: Power vs. Force. The Hidden Determinants of Human Behavior, "Preface", S. 14-15, Hay House, February 2002

The innate beauty of all that exists becomes progressively apparent. All things become of equal value so that all life and all that exists are honored for their presence and the sheer fact of their existence. The perfection of all that exists stands forth, and the illusion of imperfectionism dissolves. Each and every thing is the perfect expression of its essence manifesting as its innate existence, simply by being what it is.I. Reality and Subjectivity, S. 218, 2003

Exposure to classical music, reverence for beauty, some degree of any religion, and playing a little chess – criminality is unheard of for people who grow up with these influences. Exposure to spiritual integrity creates neuronal pathways that make it impossible to fall below integrity. This is what you can do for children to help them. Sedona Seminar Witnessing and Observing, 3 DVD set, 16. October 2004

Question: When I am in the presence of beauty or love, tears come up. Is there a line between that and emotionality?Answer: No, it’s a stage you go through and it may last for years. It has nothing to do with gender. You can look at two people looking at each other with a loving look and you begin to cry – or a beautiful aria from an opera – any kind of stunning beauty. It’s a sensitivity to beauty that arises, and as you get in the 500’s, it becomes almost continuous. You have to desist from certain activities because you break down and cry all the time. It may last some years. If people at work ask about it, just tell them the truth – that beauty makes you cry. It’s normal. It’s not emotion – because neurologically your brain changes. There’s a concept called neuroplasticity. Experience changes the chemistry of your brain physiology. The neuronal connections are always constantly changing. So crying is part of that shift of the energy balance and your brain is putting out endorphins. Someone who is upset all the time is putting out adrenalin. You walk into a great cathedral and you break into tears. You see what it took to create it. Sedona Satsang Q&A, 2 CD set, 10. January 2007

The harmonics have triggered parts of the brain that can only be triggered by those harmonics – when you cry because of beautiful music. It’s not just because of the melody. The power of those fields is because of the impact of those harmonics that are transformative in a nonlinear field. It precipitates the miraculous – the harmonics. Sedona Satsang Q&A, 2 CD set, 10. January 2007

Quotes by various other sources

[Women] Do not let your adorning be external – the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear – but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. 1 Peter 3, 3-5 (NT)

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3, 11 (NT)

Personal avowals

Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths where neither sin nor desire can reach, the person that each one is in God's eyes.If only they could see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way there would be no reason for war, for hatred, for cruelty. […] we would fall down and worship each other. Thomas Merton [LoC 515/520] (1915-1968) Anglo-American Catholic Trappist monk, mystic student of comparative religion, social activist, poet, writer, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, Image, revised pocketbook, 9. January 1968

Should you shield the valleys from the windstorms, you would never see the beauty of their canyons. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, M.D. [Social impact LoC 485] (1926-2004) Swiss US American psychiatrist, death and dying researcher, founder of Near-death studies, author, Quotes

Whenever you are creating beauty around you, you are restoring your own soul. Alice Walker [Work LoC 440] (*1944) US-American feminist, political activist, poet, author, recipient of the Pulitzer Prize (1983) and the National Book Award, aphorism

Being is desirable because it is identical with Beauty, and Beauty is loved because it is Being. We ourselves possess Beauty when we are true to our own being; ugliness is in going over to another order; knowing ourselves, we are beautiful; in self-ignorance, we are ugly.Plotinus [LoC 730; works 503] (205-270) Greek philosopher, source unknown

Withdraw into yourself and look; and if you do not find yourself beautiful as yet, do as does the sculptor of a statue [...] cut away all that is excessive, straighten all that is crooked, bring light to all that is shadowed. [...] [D]o not cease until there shall shine out on you the Godlike Splendour of Beauty; until you see temperance surely established in the stainless shrine. Plotinus [LoC 730; works 503] (205-270) Greek philosopher, Enneads 1, 6, 9

Withdraw into yourself and look. And if you do not find yourself beautiful yet, act as does the creator of a statue that is to be made beautiful: he cuts away here, he smoothes there, he makes this line lighter, this other purer, until a lovely face has grown his work. So do you also: cut away all that is excessive, straighten all that is crooked, bring light to all that is overcast, labor to make all one glow or beauty and never cease chiseling your statue, until there shall shine out on you from it the godlike splendor of virtue, until you see the perfect goodness surely established in the stainless shrine. Plotinus [LoC 730; works 503] (205-270) Greek philosopher

Vintage bookplate of a variety of shore and water birds, 1865

Disciple: What is it that creates physicalbeauty?Sri Aurobindo: There is a certain vital glow which is really not beauty – when it is overpowering and full of personal magnetism it is dangerous.Disciple: Does the artist get his form from the vital only?Sri Aurobindo: No. But these arts are such that they require their stand in the vital. There may be other elements in them but the vital is indispensable. In fact, the highest poetry cannot come unless through the vital. One may take the elements from the mind or emotion or other parts according to necessity.Disciple: How far is mind a factor in the process?Sri Aurobindo: If you mean the intellectual mind it has a very little part – though it, too, has a part. The whole process is very complicated. The first impulse is given by the vital and then there is communication with the higher mind – the intuitive faculty. Then something from there comes down to the heart and the artist again takes it up into the mind, and gives expression to it.Disciple: That is to say, something from above comes down through intuition.Sri Aurobindo: Yes, some power from above. I use the word "Intuition" in the general sense for all the faculties that act; more properly it is "Inspiration". Sri Aurobindo [Aurobindo Ghose] [LoC 605] (1872-1950) Indian British Hindu freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi, guru, poet, mystic, Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo, recorded by A.B. Purani, Third Series, section 1-0122, 23. January 1939

It was easy to love God in all that was beautiful. The lessons of deeper knowledge, though, instructed me to embrace God in all things. St. Francis of Assisi [LoC 580] (1181/82-1226) Italian Catholic friar, preacher, founder of the Franciscan Order

Do not confuse beauty with beautiful. Beautiful is a human judgment. Beauty is All. The difference is everything. Matthew Fox (*1940) US American Episcopalian (formerly Roman Catholic) priest, author

Beauty is truth, truth is beauty. That is all ye know on Earth, and all ye need to know. John Keats (1795-1821) English Romantic poet, source unknown

There’s nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline no matter how many times it’s sent away. Video presentation by Sarah Kay, Sarah Kay performs "B", presented by Bowery Poetry Club, Summer 2008, YouTube film, minute 2:18, posted 21. October 2008

The Beautiful is the real Presence of God in matter and the contact with beauty in the full sense of the word a sacrament. Simone Weil (1909-1943) French philosopher, Christian mystic, social activist, aphorism

Literary quotes

When power becomes gracious and descends into the visible – such descent I call beauty. And there is nobody from whom I want beauty as much as from you who are powerful: let your kindness be your final self-conquest. Of all evil I deem you capable: therefore I want the good from you. Verily, I have often laughed at the weaklings who thought themselves good because they had no claws. Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900) German classical scholar, critic of culture, philologist, philosopher of nihilism [LoC 120], writer, Thus Spoke Zarathustra [Also sprach Zarathustra], part II, chapter 13 "Those Who Are Sublime", Ernst Schmeitzner, Chemnitz, 1883-1891

Prayer

In beauty may I walk.All day long may I walk.Through the returning seasons may I walk.On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.With grasshoppers about my feet may I walk.With dew about my feet may I walk.With beauty may I walk.With beauty before me, may I walk.With beauty behind me, may I walk.With beauty above me, may I walk.With beauty below me, may I walk.With beauty all around me, may I walk.In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk.In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk.It is finished in beauty.It is finished in beauty.Navajo beauty way prayer